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2 Posts
Hi all,
My mom took our (Maltese) dog to the vet yesterday (I was working and she offered to stay home with him and bring him so I wouldn't have to leave work during the day or call out!) to get checked out as he has had a pronounced (but not constant) cough over the past couple of days and he also had what looked like a small wound on the side of his upper lip next to his snout. Turns out the wound was INside and outside his mouth (two little marks, one poking through his cheek into his gums). He goes to daycare weekly and our vet said that the wound looks as if it were from another small dog which adds up as he plays with small pups only at daycare and he is still quite young (9 months old) and very rowdy at times when playing. They prescribed antibiotics for two weeks with about four days' worth of pain medications which is fine, but I am skeptical about their reasoning about his coughing. We live in New Hampshire, US, where a seemingly new/unknown canine respiratory virus is spreading throughout daycares, grooming places, etc like wildfire and I am very concerned about the possibility of him having contracted this virus. Our vet said that his coughing is likely due to the wound in his mouth as it was infected and oozing some pus (wish I'd caught this wound earlier, even our groomer missed it while trimming his hair and brushing his teeth earlier this week). They said that swallowing discharge would cause him to cough because the drainage was likely dripping down his throat and he was trying to cough it up like phlegm. Did no lab testing for respiratory illness and were confident that the wound drainage was causing the coughing. I've tried to read up online about a correlation between coughing and dental issues, wounds in mouth area, etc but have found absolutely nothing connecting the two. I am skeptical of this vet's advice because in the past, with my mom's cats at least, they have misdiagnosed a handful of things (diagnosing with diabetes when it was a fast progressing cancer in one cat; diagnosing blood clots when it was also cancer in our other cat who already had a history of cancer). So this vet has a history of seeming to err on the side of caution with diagnoses which I understand to an extent as they likely don't want to jump to worst case scenario diagnoses that are much more urgent, worrisome and costly to address. With my two cats, both times that the vet got down to the bottom of their issues, it was too late to save both of them and they both had been living in pain and discomfort for months receiving the wrong care, meds, etc due to misdiagnosis. I am just very very nervous that my dog may actually have this respiratory virus that has been going around, which is said to be hospitalizing and even killing dogs if untreated for too long. Has anyone heard of coughing and dental issues/wounds being correlated with one another? I am going to call my vet about it tomorrow and ask questions, and may wind up needing proof of no respiratory illness or flu to bring my dog back to daycare next week anyways, but I would just like some insight from others who may know about the topic from experience with their dogs. I am also curious about whether the antibiotics they prescribed him would clear up anything respiratory that may be going on in addition to the cut in his mouth. Would love to hear some thoughts about all of this. Am also struggling with considering seeing a different vet facility from here on out. Am I being too hard on my vet over poor outcomes in the past? My mom wants all of our animals to keep seeing this vet as they are one of the cheaper options in the area we live in, I have talked to her about considering different vets but she was unmoved by our conversation. Thank you!
My mom took our (Maltese) dog to the vet yesterday (I was working and she offered to stay home with him and bring him so I wouldn't have to leave work during the day or call out!) to get checked out as he has had a pronounced (but not constant) cough over the past couple of days and he also had what looked like a small wound on the side of his upper lip next to his snout. Turns out the wound was INside and outside his mouth (two little marks, one poking through his cheek into his gums). He goes to daycare weekly and our vet said that the wound looks as if it were from another small dog which adds up as he plays with small pups only at daycare and he is still quite young (9 months old) and very rowdy at times when playing. They prescribed antibiotics for two weeks with about four days' worth of pain medications which is fine, but I am skeptical about their reasoning about his coughing. We live in New Hampshire, US, where a seemingly new/unknown canine respiratory virus is spreading throughout daycares, grooming places, etc like wildfire and I am very concerned about the possibility of him having contracted this virus. Our vet said that his coughing is likely due to the wound in his mouth as it was infected and oozing some pus (wish I'd caught this wound earlier, even our groomer missed it while trimming his hair and brushing his teeth earlier this week). They said that swallowing discharge would cause him to cough because the drainage was likely dripping down his throat and he was trying to cough it up like phlegm. Did no lab testing for respiratory illness and were confident that the wound drainage was causing the coughing. I've tried to read up online about a correlation between coughing and dental issues, wounds in mouth area, etc but have found absolutely nothing connecting the two. I am skeptical of this vet's advice because in the past, with my mom's cats at least, they have misdiagnosed a handful of things (diagnosing with diabetes when it was a fast progressing cancer in one cat; diagnosing blood clots when it was also cancer in our other cat who already had a history of cancer). So this vet has a history of seeming to err on the side of caution with diagnoses which I understand to an extent as they likely don't want to jump to worst case scenario diagnoses that are much more urgent, worrisome and costly to address. With my two cats, both times that the vet got down to the bottom of their issues, it was too late to save both of them and they both had been living in pain and discomfort for months receiving the wrong care, meds, etc due to misdiagnosis. I am just very very nervous that my dog may actually have this respiratory virus that has been going around, which is said to be hospitalizing and even killing dogs if untreated for too long. Has anyone heard of coughing and dental issues/wounds being correlated with one another? I am going to call my vet about it tomorrow and ask questions, and may wind up needing proof of no respiratory illness or flu to bring my dog back to daycare next week anyways, but I would just like some insight from others who may know about the topic from experience with their dogs. I am also curious about whether the antibiotics they prescribed him would clear up anything respiratory that may be going on in addition to the cut in his mouth. Would love to hear some thoughts about all of this. Am also struggling with considering seeing a different vet facility from here on out. Am I being too hard on my vet over poor outcomes in the past? My mom wants all of our animals to keep seeing this vet as they are one of the cheaper options in the area we live in, I have talked to her about considering different vets but she was unmoved by our conversation. Thank you!
